Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season
A general increase in ungulate populations calls for a better understanding of their habitat use and movement at small spatial scales. This understanding is necessary for the development of useful management actions to solve possible human-wildlife conflicts. One proposed management action is to use...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Formato: | Second cycle, A2E |
| Lenguaje: | sueco Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2019
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| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14250/ |
| _version_ | 1855572377981681664 |
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| author | Juvany Canovas, Laura |
| author_browse | Juvany Canovas, Laura |
| author_facet | Juvany Canovas, Laura |
| author_sort | Juvany Canovas, Laura |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | A general increase in ungulate populations calls for a better understanding of their habitat use and movement at small spatial scales. This understanding is necessary for the development of useful management actions to solve possible human-wildlife conflicts. One proposed management action is to use the indirect effects of hunting. Hunting activities potentially increase the feeling of risk of being predated perceived by ungulates, which could decrease their fitness by choosing to move to less risky areas with a lower quality of food. In this study, I wanted to determine how habitat use of ungulates changed between seasons in a peninsula in northern Sweden where four species of ungulates coexist: moose (Alces alces), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) red deer (Cervus elaphus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). I hypothesized that during the hunting period ungulate habitat selection would be driven by hunting risk perception, which would imply a stronger selection for forest sites with low visibility (high denseness of understory vegetation), than for forest sites with high visibility. Outside of the hunting period, I hypothesized that habitat selection would be driven by food availability and preference, making ungulates choose the most productive areas. To study this, I used data collected with camera traps, from which I obtained the passages for the four ungulate species and built models for naïve occupancy, occupancy and passage rates to determine which habitat type was more visited per season and species. I found different habitat selection patterns for three of the four studied species. Most notably, passage rates of moose were higher in open sites outside of the hunting season, while there was no difference between the habitat types during the hunting period. These differences give an insight in the importance of developing specific management per species even if they are situated in a multispecies system. My research confirms that hunting could potentially be used as a management strategy to change the habitat selection of moose away from open areas, such as planted clear-cuts. |
| format | Second cycle, A2E |
| id | RepoSLU14250 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Swedish Inglés |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU142502019-03-29T02:01:05Z https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14250/ Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season Juvany Canovas, Laura Animal ecology A general increase in ungulate populations calls for a better understanding of their habitat use and movement at small spatial scales. This understanding is necessary for the development of useful management actions to solve possible human-wildlife conflicts. One proposed management action is to use the indirect effects of hunting. Hunting activities potentially increase the feeling of risk of being predated perceived by ungulates, which could decrease their fitness by choosing to move to less risky areas with a lower quality of food. In this study, I wanted to determine how habitat use of ungulates changed between seasons in a peninsula in northern Sweden where four species of ungulates coexist: moose (Alces alces), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) red deer (Cervus elaphus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). I hypothesized that during the hunting period ungulate habitat selection would be driven by hunting risk perception, which would imply a stronger selection for forest sites with low visibility (high denseness of understory vegetation), than for forest sites with high visibility. Outside of the hunting period, I hypothesized that habitat selection would be driven by food availability and preference, making ungulates choose the most productive areas. To study this, I used data collected with camera traps, from which I obtained the passages for the four ungulate species and built models for naïve occupancy, occupancy and passage rates to determine which habitat type was more visited per season and species. I found different habitat selection patterns for three of the four studied species. Most notably, passage rates of moose were higher in open sites outside of the hunting season, while there was no difference between the habitat types during the hunting period. These differences give an insight in the importance of developing specific management per species even if they are situated in a multispecies system. My research confirms that hunting could potentially be used as a management strategy to change the habitat selection of moose away from open areas, such as planted clear-cuts. 2019-03-01 Second cycle, A2E NonPeerReviewed application/pdf sv https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14250/11/juvani_canovas_l_190301.pdf Juvany Canovas, Laura, 2019. Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season. Second cycle, A2E. Umeå: (S) > Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies <https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/view/divisions/OID-251.html> urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-10325 eng |
| spellingShingle | Animal ecology Juvany Canovas, Laura Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| title | Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| title_full | Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| title_fullStr | Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| title_short | Using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| title_sort | using camera traps to compare the habitat choice of different deer species in hunting versus non-hunting season |
| topic | Animal ecology |
| url | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14250/ https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14250/ |